In order to copy files and directories from a Pod, you could use the kubectl cp
command.
The syntax is similar to the standard cp
command, but you need:
kubectl cp source destination
Let’s go through a couple of scenarios!
Coping a file or a folder from your host to the Pod
In order to copy a file or a folder from your host to a running pod you can use the following command:
- kubectl cp /path/to/your_folder name-of-your-pod:/path/to/destination_folder
- Example, here I will copy a file called
index.html
to the /var/www/html
folder inside my my-lamp-server
pod:
- kubectl cp /home/sammy/index.html my-lamp-server:/var/www/html/index.html
The above command will work with both a file and a folder. Unlike the cp
command, you don’t have to specify the -r
argument.
Coping a file or a folder from the Pod to your host
If there is a file inside your pod which you would like to copy to your local machine, you need to use the following command:
- kubectl cp name-of-your-pod:/path/to/your_folder /path/on_your_host/to/your_folder
- Example, here I will copy my error log file from
my-lamp-server
to my local machine:
- kubectl cp my-lamp-server:/var/log/apache2/error.log /home/sammy/error.log
Copy from a specific container
In some cases you might have multiple containers running inside your Pod. In order to specify which one you want to copy from or to you just need to use the -c
argument:
kubectl cp name-of-your-pod:/path/to/your_folder /path/on_your_host/to/your_folder -c some-container-name-here
Conclusion
For more information, make sure to check out the official documentation here:
https://kubectl.docs.kubernetes.io/pages/container_debugging/copying_container_files.html
For more information about Kubernetes, make sure to check out this introduction to Kubernetes tutorial:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/an-introduction-to-kubernetes
I hope that this helps!
Regards,
Bobby